


Kimono My House

by TheCarrot



Category: Leverage, The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Crossover, Dinner isn't too bad, Eliot Spencer's Cooking, Eliot and Jake are brothers, Eliot and Jake are good brothers, Eliot stabbed Ezekiel, Eve is not cowed by Eliot, Eve worries about Jones, Eve/Shrimp, Everyone curses, Ezekiel Jones doesn't need sleep, Ezekiel freaks out, Ezekiel is the master of avoidance, Ezekiel knows Parker, F/M, Gen, Hackers, Hackers gonna hack, I Don't Even Know, I hope people don't read these tags, I'm cursing, I'm trying to get a feel for characters, Is Portland big enough for both of them?, Kissing, M/M, Manhandling, Multi, Parker has to play nice, Parker is not impressed, They're off to dinner, Twins, Two groups of threes, Unresolved Tension, and Eliot, but mostly Eliot, sad past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-03-24 23:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13821930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarrot/pseuds/TheCarrot
Summary: The day Alec Hardison comes to Portland, Ezekiel freaks the fuck out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not my best and I apologize, but please enjoy. I love both of these fandoms so much I had to try. I hope to add more to this later on, but I know myself so I'm not holding my breath.
> 
> (Yes the title is a play on the band Sparks, who's song "This Town Aint Big Enough For The Both Of Us" was the lead single... it just felt more to leave it shorter...there you go, I'm aging myself...)

The day Alec Hardison comes to Portland, Ezekiel freaks the fuck out. 

He freaks out to the point where he grabs his two phones, his laptop and a router he stores in the bottom of Jenkins drawer (for lack of a safer place to store it) and runs straight to the reading room in the library.

Ezekiel thanks whatever luck he lives by that its so late at night and that no one else is around to see him scramble the way he is. There’s a building panic in the back of his throat as he connects his phones and computer together and then runs a cable from the alarm box on the wall back to his laptop. He has no idea what Hardison is doing here, some part of him doesn’t want to know actually…

He just **has** to know. 

For safety reasons. 

_To keep his friends safe._

So Ezekiel sets to work scrubbing as much as he can of himself and his fellow librarians off of the face of Portland. For good measure he takes them out of the surrounding states and countries as well, from all the way to Wyoming and straight down to Peru.

Ezekiel does a quick scan of nearby attractions that would lure someone like Alec Hardison to this place and the only thing he can find is the FBI headquarters that are here.

And then-

Nothing.

Alec Hardison buys a brew pub.

And he’s quiet.

Ezekiel is man enough to admit to himself that he’s still panicking about it five days later; and he’s shown why his instincts were screaming at him when **she** shows up.

Parker.

For bloody fucks sake he thinks, sinking back into his chair. Ezekiel watches Parker go in and out of the brew pub, sometimes alone and sometime with Hardison and...they look happy. Which makes Ezekiel wonder if maybe they’ve joined up for a con, or got together ... team up he is what he surmises as the most likely cause, despite how odd it would be, but it’s easier on his sanity.

Parker is a loose cannon. Rather she was, he thinks. The Parker he’s seeing now though, from grainy traffic feeds and the occasional scoping out from far away roof tops in the middle of the night, this one seems calmer somehow. 

Seeing them together is almost enough to make him calm down and Ezekiel isn’t sure why. He knows Parker is a flight risk and that if a job is too big she’ll run from it. Plus if she’s got Hardison on her side chances are he’ll run when she does. 

Maybe it won’t be so bad after all. Things will go back to normal once they leave.

Only, they **_don’t leave._**

Five more days after Parker shows up finds Ezekiel glaring down at his phone from his spot on top of the counter in the Annex kitchen. He’s got his phone propped up on his crossed legs and has managed to jam himself into the corner cupboards so he won’t fall over if he happens to fall asleep. 

It’s a high possibility too, hacking into Hardison’s computers without leaving a trace has kept him up for a few days longer than he’s normally let himself go. (And he still hasn’t found anything either.)

Ezekiel thinks he must have zoned out because suddenly the smell of Jasmine tea has him perking up to see Stone and Jenkins standing next to a boiling kettle and a variety of mismatched fine china. 

“Well look who decided to join the land of the living.” Jake sighs eyeing the curled up thief. The exasperation barely covers the worry and Ezekiel feels a hysterical giggle build up inside his throat when Jakes face twists up in a frown. He refrains from letting it out however and the thief instead makes a confused sound, looking at the historian with tired brown eyes. 

“Wha?”

Jenkins sighs and holds out one of the mugs of tea he’s just poured towards Ezekiel, “You’ve been holed up in the reading room for over a week Mr. Jones.”

Ezekiel exhales slowly, reaching out to accept the tea cup and almost groans because the heat feels amazing on the cramped muscles in his hands as he settles back into his corner.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you work so hard and long at something,” Stone chuckles knocking into Ezekiel’s knee with his elbow, trying to get a rise out of the younger man.

Only, Ezekiel doesn’t bother to reply, he doesn’t have the energy to. Normally bickering with Stone is one of the highlights of his day, but the thing with Hardison and then Parker, and then HardisonandParker, has Ezekiel pulled a little too thin at the moment. 

“Jones?” Jake sounds concerned now and even Jenkins brow is furrowed over ageless brown eyes. 

“Hm?” 

“-ones!” Stones voice is sharp and Ezekiel’s eyes shoot open to glare at the man who now has a hand clamped on his knee trying to shake him awake.

“Bloody hell Stone, what?” Ezekiel snaps, trying to casually take a sip of the tea to cover his lapse in attention. Carefully the thief slides down so he’s standing on the floor and doesn’t have to deal with the phantom heat soaking into him where Jake’s hand had been.

“When was the last time you got any sleep?” Jake asks seriously putting himself further into Ezekiel’s space than normal.. Theres a seriously overlap going on in Ezekiel’s brain at the moment (another time, another place, the same face, but not the same person, he wonders if he should ask Jake) and he flinches back, unable to help himself. Stone sees it and pulls back as well but suddenly Ezekiel is reaching out to grab his wrist.

“Hey, no…” Ezekiel whispers, his smile small and tired. He gives Jakes arm a quick squeeze before dropping it and he moves to walk around them. He needs to get out of here. “Sorry…”

Jenkins brown eyes are burning a hole in the back of Ezekiel’s head as he makes a hasty exit. “This doesn’t look good.”

Jake nods in agreement, feet already following the thief out of the kitchen. The historian loses him minutes after re-entering the library and Jake curses aloud at Ray when he can’t get back to the reading room no matter how hard he tries.

\--

Ezekiel wants to throw up the minute he sees the three cabs pull up outside of Hardison’s brew pub. The older man he only vaguely recognizes, he’s an insurance agent that Ezekiel’s run into a few times in Germany and once in Switzerland. The woman, in her black dress is none other than the infamous Sophie Devereux ...he was so sure Chaos had killed her, so he’s surprised to see her alive and well.

And then... there’s Eliot.

The Aussie stands up so fast he knocks his chair over and Ezekiel can’t breath. He can barely- 

No, he can’t breathe...

His knees go out from under him and Ezekiel presses his back to the table leg behind him as he buries his face into his knees.

Nathan Ford.

Sophie Devereux.

Alec Haridson.

Parker.

Eliot Spencer…

_Hardison. Parker. Eliot._

**HardisonParkerEliot.**

Shitfuck...

**Eliot.... Spencer**

Eliot.

\--

Hardison is the first one on his radar when he's sixteen and fresh to MI6; when he’s knee deep in the blackest parts of the dark web from a small hotel room in Russia. Ezekiel lets his bull dog program follow Hardison’s trail into the NSA’s computer and the Aussie can only smirk when he passes over several top secret files to his boss with barely any effort.

He first meets Parker in a dark alley after running from the cops, his own agents and German police, and the wild eyed look she wore made him think for sure was going to get stabbed. 

Eliot he met in the broad daylight in Budapest and did get stabbed. He’s nineteen and at his wits end.

So no, he’s not happy that these people are in his town now.

_(He also met Eliot in a seedy hotel in Columbia but they agreed to never mention that tequila soaked night ever again. Even in they revisited it in Croatia a year later.)_

_(Parker he found himself trapped with in an air vent in Abu Daubi. Stuff happened.)_

_(Hardison he’s only ever met online, thank god... least he end up sleeping with the other hacker too and deciding that together they could easily rule the world.)_

Ezekiel sprawls out under the table where his computer sits and falls asleep (passes out) for five hours for the first time in a week. He wakes up and his search programme has finally coughed up a key word. 

**_Leverage Inc._**

He spends the next twenty hours digging into every scrap he can gets his digital paw prints on and Ezekiel can only collapse back in his chair with a hysterical laugh burying his face in his hands. 

He desperately wants to run away.

\--

“Jones?” 

It’s Baird’s soft voice behind him that makes Ezekiel jump up from his seat as he startles. 

The Reading room is dark around the younger man and Eve’s worry has just tripled, she hasn’t put much stock in Jakes overly concerned tone or in Jenkins perturbed expression when they had confronted her about Ezekiel’s odd behaviour. However she’s never been able to get the drop on Ezekiel unless the boy was asleep, so the fact that she just saw him jump has her concerned now. The dark circles under his eyes are. not. healthy. “What’s going on? You’ve been up here for almost twelve days.”

Ezekiel hesitates and right then Eve knows it’s bad. Carefully she reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down into his seat and Eve takes the chair next to him. “Ezekiel.” Her voice is the perfect mix between demanding and pleading. “What’s going on?”

He knows it’s not a good idea to involve Baird just yet, but then again, it’s another set of eyes on the five people he desperately wants to keep his team away from. His tired brain must think it’s a good idea because before he can stop himself Ezekiel turns to his first computer and shakes it awake. (He’d like it is someone could shake him awake too because frankly this whole thing has to be a nightmare.)

“Its..complicated.” Ezekiel confesses. Eves face doesn’t even twitch, just silently asks for the truth so she can be prepared. That… That Ezekiel can understand. 

“About a month ago a hacker I know of, Hardison, he came to Portland.” Ezekiel starts. “I... it- Baird...it freaked me out. I mean, I buried us as deep as I could and such, but of all places, why the bloody hell would he be here in Portland? It’s not his type of place at all, there’s nothing here except for like, two decent targets and one would need a veritable army to get into. Then not even a week after he showed up...”

All of Eve is coiled tension, ready for action; but Ezekiel just puts his face in his hands and elbows on the desk as he sags in exhaustion.

“Then Parker came in.” The thief continues. “I know that name doesn’t mean anything to you but in my world she’s a wild card. A great thief, not quite me mind you, but really good even if she is sodding off her rocker.”

“Well, They don’t sound too bad...” Eve tries for comforting, knowing she’s missing it by a mile but she isn’t sure what to do here just yet. She’s not sure why they’re a threat yet….

Tired brown eyes look over at his guardian and Ezekiel sighs before he reaches out to shake his second computer, a tablet and keyboard, awake. While on his first is a large map and lines upon lines of code, the second screen is filled with five different faces. Ones that he’s been staring at for the past week.

“Is that Stone?” Eve exclaims hands shooting out to turn the screen so she can see it better.

Ezekiel shakes his head, reaching out and disconnecting the screen from the keyboard, handing it to Eve so she can read the finer print. “That’s Eliot Spencer.”

Eve feels like a bucket of ice water just got thrown over her head. “Eliot...Spencer...”

“Thought you’d recognize that one.” Ezekiel sighs flopping back in his chair. “Word had been going around that-“

“Why do you know him?” She interrupts him. There’s a lilt to her librarians voice she doesn’t like; It’s mostly fear but a small amount of familiarity and it makes Eve’s stomach turn.

Ezekiel pauses, glancing at the older woman before shrugging carefully, there’s a building knot of tension in his neck that’s going to be a full on migraine in a day or so. “We’ve....met.”

Eve wants a better answer than that. She just doesn’t know if it’s going to be one she’s going to be able to stomach. “Met how, Ezekiel?”

He knows that tone, it’s her, give me no bullshit and I won’t make you do circuits in the gym later, tone. “He-ah... kind of- stabbed....me.” W _e also slept together… _He doesn't think she’d appreciate that comment as much however.__

__Eves not sure if she has enough strength to break the tablet screen in her hands, she’s just sure she’s giving it her best shot with how white her knuckles are around the edges. Blue eyes trail over to thief in front of her, as if she could see the well healed wound Spencer had inflicted so many years prior. “Ezekiel...”_ _

__To his credit, Ezekiel merely waves off her concern, the stabbing isn’t why he’s worried. (It’s part of it, but not all.) “The other two arrived the same day Spencer did, the man was an insurance agent I met a few times in Germany, and the woman, her current alias is Sophie Devereaux. The first time I saw her she was posing as royal duchess or something.”_ _

__Eve physically makes herself look down at the other faces on the screen. “And these people are all planning something?”_ _

__“Hitter, Hacker, Thief, Grifter, and well, Mastermind I guess.” Ezekiel sums up. “They’re planning something, they have to be. People like us, like them, we don’t team up if we can avoid it, it makes complications. I just thought I could find out what it was before their shit rained down on us.”_ _

__The guardian smiles, for the first time since she entered the room she’s sure of at least one thing. “Well, we’ve got you protecting us.” Ezekiel whips his head around to stare at her with wide eyes but Eve just continues. “Jones, maybe they’re here for a reason, maybe they aren’t. We’ll do our best to stay off their radar, but we all have a job to do. And if they do come after us, I have enough faith in you that you will let us know when to run.”_ _

__Ezekiel feels a lump form in his throat and he has to duck his head in order to make the burning feeling go away. He must be over tired, to let Eves words effect him like this. He scrubs a hand over his face just as Eve puts a hand on his shoulder._ _

__“Ezekiel, come on, you need to sleep and it doesn’t look like these people are going anywhere.” Eve mutters, pulling the thief to his feet._ _

__Ezekiel hopes thats she’s right._ _

__She drags him away to the small room off the main floor of the Annex and he goes quietly. It’s only as she leaves the semi-conscious thief behind her that Eve sees Stone and Cassandra entering the other side of the room. Eve quickly raises her finger to her lips and glares at them to be quiet. “I just got him to sleep, do not wake him or else.”_ _

__Cassandra curls her shoulders inwards and mimes zipping her lips shut. Instead the red head gives Eve a soft smile before slipping past her to poke her head in on her friend._ _

__“You actually managed to get him to go to sleep?” Jake whispers as he comes up on Eves side._ _

__The Guardian nods, resting her hip against the long table and watches Cassandra slip into the room where Ezekiel is sleeping._ _

__“Did he say what he was doing?”_ _

__“Not really,” Eve lies, “He was doing some hacker stuff and found something he didn’t like by the sounds of it. Something dangerous.”_ _

__Stone rolls his eyes, huffing as he crosses his arms. “Well, too bad for him that he went to sleep now.” At Eves confused look the historian smiles softly. “My brother got into town last week, him and his friends just opened a brewpub down town.”_ _

__Eve’s doing her best to not let the horror show on her face. _Brother…it can’t be…_ “Brother?”_ _

__“Yeah, I haven’t seen him in years, but-” Theres a bit of red settling on Jakes neck and any other day Eve would give him shit for it. Only, all she can do now is wonder how she’s going to tell Ezekiel his fears may not be completely unfounded._ _

__Jake doesn’t seem to notice her quiet because he quickly adds, “I actually wouldn’t mind if you guys came to meet him. Eliot used to be military so you’d probably get alone with him Baird.” He chuckles and then snorts inelegantly. “I figure Jones will give me shit for being a twin and not telling him.”_ _

__Eve chuckles nervously, “A twin, no way…get outta town…” (Sweet mother fucking fuck) She thinks._ _

__“Yeah, he’s invited us to dinner next week,”_ _

__‘Shit.’_ _


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake invites and Ezekiel avoids. Eve's pretty much done with everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this a case of ask and ye shall receive? Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I hope this and the next (two is what I'm banking on) chapters are just as enjoyable. This is starting to take the shape of an OT3... so... fair warning?

“YOU HAVE A TWIN BROTHER!!!”

Cassandra’s happy squeal echoes around the Annex and Jake winces at the volume. Her hands are waving wildly around in the air in excitement and even Jenkins is smiling at the red head. 

“Yea Cassie,” Jake chuckles rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Anyways, he’s just moved to Portland with some friends…and he’s invited us to dinner in a few days-“

“YESSSS!!!!” 

Eve shakes her head where she’s sitting at her desk at the happiness radiating off their resident math genius. Maybe it’s because of where she’s sitting, or maybe because she was expecting it, but Eve is the only one to notice when Ezekiel’s entire frame freezes at Jakes invitation. She watches his brown eyes glaze over in an unnamed emotion before it tries to slide back into their normal unaffected disinterest. She watches the way he moves and shifts, watching the tension start to creep into his posture before he rolls his shoulders to dislodge it. Apart from a single moment of panic, Ezekiel actually looks completely calm and put together… however if yesterdays conversation has let her in on anything it’s that Ezekiel is far from okay with dinner with Eliot Spencer. 

Blue eyes narrow as Eve looks from their thief to Cassandra who lets out another loud squeal. Eve notices Jake looking at her imploringly and the Colonel nods, silently telling him that she’s up for the dinner as well. Yup, her and her gun. (Not that Jake needs to know the last bit, she thinks.)

Cassandra squeals in excitement as she jumps up and down. “Oh my goodness! I can’t wait! This is wonderful!”

By the time Eve lets her eyes travel away from Stone’s soft amused look and back to Ezekiel, the chair the thief had been sitting in is empty and swirling with the force of his departure. Eve takes a breath and lets it out slowly. 

**Damnit.**

—

It only takes Eve two hours to track down Jones who’s back in the Reading Room. He’s down to one laptop and his phone and doesn’t look the least bit guilty at having been found after running away.

“You can’t avoid Jake forever Jones.” Eve sighs. Ezekiel just blinks at her, his expression saying ‘Watch me’ so loudly it makes her want to grind her teeth. “He thinks he’s pissed you off by not telling you about his brother.”

That… that makes Ezekiel frown, “Since when would he ever care about pissing me off?” 

Jake doesn’t tell him stuff all the time, Ezekiel thinks; and if his own words are actually annoyingly painful for him to say aloud… well, he’ll claim plausible deniability because he does not care about anyone or anything…(he may not lie to other but he figures lying to himself is fair game) That’s mostly because secretly Ezekiel hates it when the older man is mad at him because Jake never seems to notice the hurt on the thief’s face when he’s giving Ezekiel the silent treatment for longer then needed. (And if he tends to bury the hurt right next to how he feels when Cassandra snaps at him, well… he has no one to blame but himself for pissing them off in the first place.)

Baird looks anything but impressed by his statement and shakes her head. “All I’m saying is, maybe we should be up front with what we know about Spencer...”

Ezekiel immediately vetos this plan… He knows a lot more about Spencer than she does.

“-and then maybe Stone will lay off of you about going the meeting.” Eve finishes. ‘No way in bloody hell,’ his expression says this time and it’s nice he doesn’t even have to open his mouth to be condescending anymore, Eve thinks. “Well, then, you’re going to have to think of some excuse to get out of dinner with us.”

Brown eyes widen as Ezekiel sits up straight in the chair. “Wait, you’re actually going? Baird! You can’t! These people are dangerous! Let Stone go by himself if he wants to risk his neck! Cassandra could get hurt-”

Eves cold glare stops him dead, more so than the finger she points at him menacingly. “Jones. Stop.” She orders and surprisingly the thief falls silent. “Beyond being Eliot Spencer, that man is Stones brother. His twin… Now, do you really think Stone will ever let anything happen to Cassandra?”

Ezekiel hesitates but slowly shakes his head. He knows Jake...he’d do anything to protect her. And Cassandra, him. Which is, he thinks, the root of why he’s so freaked out about the dinner. He wouldn’t lose just one of them if things go sideways and either Eliot or Parker freaks out. He’d lose both of them and even Baird because there’s no way she’d leave without them and- Ezekiel can feel the panic start to climb up his throat again. He’s just about to throw himself out of his chair to find someplace quiet to work through it, when Eve puts a hand on his shoulder and crouches down in front of him. 

The gesture, oddly, is enough to momentarily knock him off his panic ledge.

“Listen to me Ezekiel, we have to go on at least a little faith that Stone wouldn’t lead us into a situation that he knows we couldn’t get out of.” Her blue eyes are soft as she watches the younger man. “We can defend ourselves and run at the first sign of danger....but it’s just dinner… we know enough to be prepared.” She knows better than to ask Ezekiel to change his mind about going.

Ezekiel wonders if NATO military training and Monkey King martial arts are enough to go up against an angry Eliot Spencer should the hitter figure out that they’re in the same town… and to think at first he was worried about Alec Hardison. Hah! He’d take the Hacker out to a football match himself if only he never had to face Spencer.

“Stones going to be upset you’re not coming.” Baird throws out quietly and it takes her a moment to register the surprise on Ezekiel’s face. She’s surprised at his surprise and Eve finds a well of ‘huh…’ growing inside her. Ezekiel must know how much he means to Stone… how much it means for the historian to actually be willing to introducing the better part of his family to him and Cassandra. Eves never met his father personally, defiantly for the better, because she’s pretty sure she would have decked him. (Actually she knows she would’ve, civilian be damned.) 

Eve knows she’s thrown the thief though when he doesn’t automatically reply with the expected, ‘Of course he’d be upset, who wouldn’t want Ezekiel Jones around.’ And she’s already done with this entire situation. Damn kids. “Jones?”

She doesn’t get an answer before Ezekiel is pushing his way up and out of his chair and past her, heading towards the door at a dead pace. Baird can only pinch the bridge of her nose and sigh. 

—

The silence between the two men continues on for the next four days and Eve is almost at her wits end with Jones. 

Cassandra’s joy at the idea of the dinner seems to have dwindled in the face of all the tension amidst the Annex and as such she’s been sticking closer to Jenkins side then normal to avoid Jake’s foul mood and… well, Ezekiel has been proving he’s the master of avoidance by skirting around all of them.

It’s well past five in the evening when Stone ducks into the main room, looking around before dropping down at his desk with an angry scowl. 

They’re all so very familiar with that look by now that Eve doesn’t even need to ask.

Cassandra does however as she comes up on Stone’s side, setting a comforting hand on the mans shoulder. “Still no Ezekiel?” She asks softly clutching a book in her other arm. 

“I don’t get it, he couldn’t’ve just said no!” Jake growls. “What the hells he doin’ avoiding us!”

If he gives you a no, then you’ll ask him why, Eve thinks to herself as she watches Jake squeeze Cassandras hand back before setting his elbows on his desk with a huff. Cassandra doesn’t remove her hand and Baird raises an eyebrow at it before shrugging it off. It’s not pressing business at the moment. 

“Did you ever think that maybe because he’s a thief that maybe theres people out there that Jones doesn’t want to be seen by?” Eve tries to reason with him despite thinking how she’s going to find Ezekiel and drag him to down to the gym if he doesn’t stop his passive aggressive bullshit.

“Well then maybe he should have picked a different career!” Stone snaps angrily. It’s a bad thing to say and he knows it and judging by the unimpressed glare Eve is giving him Jake figures he’ll be wanting to apologize to their thief before the days out. (If he can find the bastard anyways)

“Look, We all have our secrets, some are twin brothers,” Eve sighs motioning to Jake, “Others may be, you know… a little bit bigger. I could only imagine a lot of insurance agents would come out of retirement to get their hands on Jones.”

Stone frowns for a moment looking up at Cassandra who only blinks back at him in reply, she doesn’t know either then. “Insurance agents?” He asks. “Baird… do you know somethin’ about all this?”

Oops, Eve thinks before mentally saying screw it, she was hired to be a Guardian, not a high school guidance counsellor. “Well, I may have ran background checks on your bother and his friends as soon as you asked us to dinner.” Well, Ezekiel ran them…faster and more in depth than any of her NATO people could have. “Don’t make that face Stone- Nathan Ford was an employee of IYS for a long time and he’s chased Ezekiel before… There’s probably still bad blood.” She’s lying for Ezekiel Jones… what has her life become.

Jake still isn’t happy about this but a little of his anger seeps out of him at finally having an explanation. “If he’s got a problem he could’ve just told me.”

Eve just stares at him blankly for a moment before snorting. Then she laughs, and laughs…and walks out of the room still chuckling.

Okay, Jake will give her that one, that was a dumb thing to say. Next to him even Cassandra is shaking her head at him. Jones, just up an tell someone something? Hah, okay, he needs a drink. 

“Beer?” He asks looking up at bright blue eyes.

Cassandra’s smile is like a ray of sun through his bad mood and Jake finds himself grinning stupidly at it. “Sure. And if it helps at all, I can’t wait to meet your brother tomorrow.” 

—

The next afternoon comes quickly and Jake sighs as he grabs his jacket off the back of the chair before starting towards the main door where the girls are already waiting outside. He pauses in front of Ezekiels’ desk where the thief is sitting with his feet up on his desk. It’s the first time in the past few days Jake’s seen the thief sit still for more than a minute with him in the room. 

“Are you sure you won’t come?” Jake asks, voice as close to pleading as he would ever let it get. “It’d mean a lot…”

Ezekiel doesn’t _(can’t)_ even look up from his phone, refuses too- because he knows if he did, he’d cave. Eliot Spencer be damned. He’s terrible with denying Stone or Cassandra when they’re giving him those eyes. “Sorry mate, one cowboy in my life is good. Have fun.” His voice is rough with all the words and warning he doesn’t say. Jake’s going to hate him after this…

The historian growls, throwing his hands up in the air as he storms out of the annex, almost bowling into Jenkins who is on his way into the room with an armload of books. The caretaker merely raises an eyebrow at Jakes retreating back before glancing over at Ezekiel who is shooting up out of his seat and hurrying towards the globe. 

“Not joining the others Mr. Jones?” Jenkins questions mildly dropping his pile on the long table just as the globe locks and the door opens to a familiar Parisian street. 

“Hah, not on your life mate.” Ezekiel mutters before slamming the door behind himself, cutting off anything the older man might say.

Ezekiel hates himself for running away, he hates that he’s left Baird to deal with the threat of Leverage alone and he hates that his actions had put such a damper on Cassandra’s enthusiasm for dinner… but mostly he hates the way his heart jumps into his throat whenever he thinks of Jakes disappointed face… it’s the same gut wrenching feeling he gets when he thinks about meeting Eliot face to face again. 

And if Ezekiel free climbs the side of the Eiffel Tower so he can sit alone in peace and quiet (and fucking cold winds because screw winter in Europe) …well, at least Spencer is half a globe away… 

_Half a world away with the most important people in his life._

“Fucking bloody fuck…” The thief curses and lets his bare hands go numb where they’re clutching the wrought iron he’s sitting on and Ezekiel just tries to breathe…


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One good thing about being sick is you write more when you don't have to go to work.
> 
> Enjoy Dinner...
> 
> (Spelling mistakes are being chalked up to cold medicine...)

“So we have to be nice to these people?” Parker sighs dramatically from her spot laying across the bar, her blonde hair fanning out underneath her. 

Hardison chuckles where he’s bussing the last of the glasses from the last patrons and he leans over to place a quick kiss on her nose. “Come on Mama, this is Eliot’s family.”

That doesn’t seem to make Parker any happier as she turns her head to look at Eliot who’s across the room putting a few tables together for their soon to be guests. “I don’t like it.” She mutters under her breath. 

The hacker raises an eyebrow and puts his elbows on the bar by her stomach so he can bend over and peer up at her. “You don’t like the fact that Eliot’s got family?”

Parker rolls over so she’s facing her boyfriend. “We’re his family…what if these people try to take Eliot away?”

Alec smiles up at her and then looks over her to their hitter who’s setting a plate of some weird Italian bruschetta on the table. “Babe, Eliots not going anywhere.” He knows even before he says it that it’s true. 

“You sure?”

“I’m sure babe.” Hardisosn smiles.

“PARKER! Get off the bar! People eat off of that!” 

The blonde thief grins wildly before rolling into Alec’s outstretched arms and then onto the floor. She’ll never admit that she likes Eliot’s cute annoyed face as much as she loves Hardison’s face when the hacker has to rappel.

—

Dusk falls quickly and quietly over Portland as Jake pulls his truck into the closest available parking space in the lot. The historian has to chuckle at the ostentatious orange Charger that he has no doubts is his brothers.

“So you guys are identical twins?” Cassandra asks from the middle seat clapping her hands excitedly. Next to her Eve is scanning the front of the building. She immediately notes the security cameras disguised as part of the sign and ducks her head so her face isn’t caught fully. Old habits as they say.

“Yeah.” Jake smiles at the red head as he climbs out of the drivers seat and helps Cassandra down as well. “Eliots older buy a few minutes but… well, we were always the oldest kids in our family so we used to do everything together…”

Large blue eyes blink up at him as they head towards the door and Cassandra’s barrette sparkles in the fading sunlight. “Did he know?” She asks quietly.

“Know?” 

“You know…about your…” Cassandra smiles and points to her own head. “Your…IQ?”

Eve looks over at them and is kind of curious about that herself. 

Jake shrugs but nods. “He knew. I never told him but then again I never had too. We actually learned Ancient Greek together…and Spanish and Italian.” There’s a small blush colouring his cheeks and the Historian shrugs as they reach the front door. “Him and pops had a fallen’ out and Eliot joined the army when we graduated. We talked a bit afterwards, but we each were fightin’ our own battles. We lost contact until a little while ago.”

It’s only when they enter the actual brew pub that Eve starts to see Stone relax at all. Theres’ only three people standing by a large table already decked out with food and a couple of open bottles of wine. The mug shots Ezekiel’s pulled on them doesn’t do any of them justice, Baird thinks. Parker is lithe muscle and looks ready to tackle someone. Haridson is taller and buffer then she expects but Eve’s pretty sure she could take the hacker in a fight. (No, she’s positive she could) Eliot on the other hand… she feels her muscles tense as she looks at the brother of one of her soldiers. 

Eliot is hard muscle, radiating danger and sweeping ice blue eyes. It sets Baird on edge as she watches him, until …suddenly, the Hitter is softening. Her own blue eyes widen as Jake strolls forward without hesitation and wraps his arms around his brother, the two exchanging a hug that is anything but brief. If it wasn’t for the hair Eve doesn’t think there would be a way to tell them apart.

“Glad you could make it.” Eliot smirks as she untangles himself from the embrace to hold his brother at arms length. He scans the younger twin and frowns when he sees the tension sitting on his brothers shoulders. “Whats wrong?”

Jake just smiles at his brother and shakes his head. “Nothing, it’s good to see you Eliot.” It’s just…even if he would never admit it to the thief’s face, he wanted Ezekiel to be here. Out of the corner of his eye Jake can see the amused look on Eve and Cassandra’s face but theres a missing eye roll that belongs to the other man that Jake just can’t shake. He wants so bad for Ezekiel to be there; to realize that their’s more to the historian than just books and knowledge and trust issues. 

“It’s good to see you too Jake.” Eliot grins and untangles himself before motioning to the blonde and the dark skinned man behind him. “I want you to meet my crew. Some of them anyway. This here is Parker,” the blonde waves with a smile, “And that’s Alec Hardison.”

“Sup man?” The hacker grins, doing his best to keep the freaked out smile off of his face. He likes Eliot, maybe more than likes, but seeing two of them side by side is creeping him out. “Nice to meet ya.” 

Jake shakes Hardison’s hand then, not at all irked when Parker doesn’t offer her own. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” He sends a wink to his older brother and then motions to the two girls behind him. “This is Cassandra Cillian, and Colonel Eve Baird.”

Eliot’s eyes widen a fraction looking from Jake to the taller blonde woman standing by the door. “Baird? The Colonel Baird?”

Eve’s smirking a little bit at the wariness entering Eliots eyes and she feels a little better at seeing it. If her own colourful history is enough to bring that light to Spencers eyes Eve figures this dinner may not be so bad after all. “It’s nice to finally meet you Spencer.”

Jake eyes his guardian and feels his jaw drop. He’s never mentioned Eliot’s different last name… “Baird?” The colonels hand falls on his shoulder and Eve gives Jake a quick smile before she looks at Eliot.

The two soldiers share a look.

A look filled with questions. 

**(Are you going to attack us?)**

Filled with threats. 

**(Just try it)**

Filled with promises.

**(You will not walk away if you do)**

“This is the part where you tell us all of Jakes’ embarrassing baby moments and no one gets hurt.” Eve orders with a softening gaze and Eliot’s eyes widen in surprise.

Behind them Cassandra is clapping excitedly and Parker is eyeing Stone like she hadn’t thought of that idea.

“This is gonna be good.” Alec smirks as he starts towards the bar. “I’ll get the drinks started.’

After that dinner goes off rather well Eve thinks. No one attacks anyone, no one dies and somehow no one brings up any sore subjects.

She also thinks that she will forgive a lot of the things Eliot Spencers’ ever done in his life if he keeps feeding her like this. She plans to never tell Ezekiel this as she pops another shrimp into her mouth… vaguely Eve wonders if Spencer and Neptune have ever spent any time together…

Across the table Parker is hovering closer to Cassandra then she’s used to anyone being in her space and the red head blinks at her innocently as Parker takes loud sips from her soda. Cassandra can’t help the way she’s taking quick looks at the blonde who she swears looks so familiar, but she can’t seem to remember where she’s seen that face and is trying to figure out how to ask without being rude. 

Hardison is cowing to himself as he snaps pictures after picture of Jake and Eliot who are standing by the bar. 

Eve just eats another shrimp and watches Eliot laugh as he claps his brother heartily on the back and Jake’s face softens into an expression Eve hardly ever sees the man wear.

Eliot lets his hand fall from his brothers back and gives Jake a familiar glare. One that says he isn’t going to accept a brush off this time. “Jacob…” All it takes is his name for Eliot to ask without actually asking because his tone is digging through every defence the younger twin has ever built up and Jake have never been able to say no to that voice.

Jake finds his lips parting, he’s on the verge of telling his older brother about Ezekiel and how there’s another member to his group of friends that he wants Eliot to meet. But the historian stops himself with a tired smile. Ezekiel’s backed out for a reason and it’s Jakes own fault for thinking the thief might be interested in him and his family. Especially after having met his father. 

He tells himself it doesn’t mean anything, that more importantly Cassie is here and so is Eve and Jones isn’t. Jake’ll admit to himself that it hurts. He thought that they were getting along a lot better these days; Jake had been trying so hard to be better. However if the silence over the past four days has reminded the Librarian of anything, is that Ezekiel is very different than he lets others see. And sometimes he’s exactly as he pretends to be.

Jake takes a sip of his new beer and shakes his head. “I’ll tell ya later, promise.” He whispers nodding his head back towards the others. Identical blue eyes meet and Eliot nods back, holding his brother to his word.

Together they make their way back to the table, Eliot turning his chair to slide in next to Parker who is eating the largest piece of cake she could cut herself while still sharing with the others. She smiles at him with icing in her hair as he shakes his head at her as Cassandra giggles, taking a napkin to the thief hair. 

Parker gives the red head a strange look but smiles and lets her do it.

“So, what do ya’ll do anyways, Jakey wouldn’t say over the phone?” Eliot chuckles at the two girls, taking a sip of his beer. 

Eve chuckles, “We’re Librarians.” They’ve been getting really good with this spell lately.

“Like at a library or at ‘ _The Library_ ’?” Parker asks.

Jake, Eve and Cassandra all freeze and stare at the blonde in surprise.

“Babe?” Hardison raises an eyebrow and gives Parker a strange look that she completely ignores . The sudden tension skyrocketing in the room is breathtaking and the hacker shifts closer to Parker and Eliot.

Parker just swallows her bite of cake before looking at Hardison and then to Cassandra. “What? Theres a huge difference. Ones all stuffy and boring and the other one has the best stuff a person could ever hope to steal!” She grins.

The three library workers are still as statues and it’s Eliot’s turn to give them all strange looks as he asks, “Parker, Darlin’ what are you talking about?” He has a bad feeling about this.

The blonde thief just rolls her eyes cutting another hunk out of her cake. “What? You know. The “magic” Library?” She somehow manages to do finger quotes without letting go of her cake laden fork. “Everyone knows about it.”

“T-they d-do?” Jake stutters his eyes whipping back and forth between his Guardian and Cassandra. They look as worried as he feels. This is not good.

“Well sure, most of the thieves anyway.” Parker shoves the large piece of cake into her mouth and glances at her boys. “Noone’s ev’r stol- nythin’ frum dhar thou- even me…”

“Chew with your mouth closed Parker.” Eliot orders out of reflex and then lets his eyes widen before he just hangs his head pinching the bridge of his nose. “Magic…libraries…”

Hardison shakes his head and puts an arm around the back of his girlfriend’s chair. “Parker there is no such thing as magic…”

To her credit, Parker just chews her cake and glares at the dark skinned man next to her, “Just like theres no such thing as privacy?” She gloats silently when Hardison’s mouth drops open and he sputters unable to answer. “Besides, they aren’t exactly telling me I’m wrong.” She points her fork at Eliot’s clone whose staring at Parker with an angry frown. 

Cassandra however, is almost bouncing out of her seat with a smile so wide Eve is surprised her face doesn’t split open. “Mr. Jenkins can’t even be mad!” She blurts out happily, “We didn’t say anything! They already knew!” 

Her excitement is all too palpable and Eve can only let her head drop to the crook of her elbow on the table top. Jenkins is not going to to be mad… he’s going to explode, she thinks, and so is Ezekiel. 

_Oh god_ … Jones is going to freak out if he finds out Eliot Spencer knows about the Library.

Eve really wishes her beer was something stronger. 

Jake just looks like he’s in pain as his brothers judging eyebrow is pointed at him this time and Eliot can only shake his head. “Oh shut up. At least I ain’t hanging out with a bunch of damn modern day Robin Hoods!” the historian snaps flushing. 

Eliot just sighs in disbelief and gets up to head for the bar; he hopes Nate’s left them some whiskey. Leave it to his brother to get mixed up in magic from the middle of Oklahoma… “Damnit Jacob.” 

-

The next half hour is a mix between tense awkward silences and Hardison grilling them for information they absolutely refuse to give him about the Library as he pours them more beers. 

The hacker huffs angrily, tapping on his phone as Parker sits on the bar counter beside him and watches the screen from where her chin is on his shoulder. “You know normally you’re better at this.” She eyes her boyfriend in confusion. 

Hardison gives her such an affronted look that Parker has to smile back at him and pat his far shoulder consolingly before the hacker will go back to his phone. “…They’re good…” he admits quietly.

“Who’s good?” 

“Whoever they got for a hacker.” Hardison sighs finally putting his phone down on the counter and glancing up at his girlfriend. “I can not find a single trace of these people. Anywhere.”

“Hey, you two better not be planning somethin’ over there.” Eliot suddenly growls at them from across the room where he and Jake are in the midst of a conversation with Eve. 

Parker straightens up to smile at the hitter and shakes her head innocently. “We would never Eliot One!” She watches the man sputter at the nickname before Eve laughs and Jake sets a comforting hand on his brothers shoulder. “Do you think we should ask?” Parker asks quietly back at Alec, barely moving her lips. 

Hardison shakes his head, “Nah Mama, not yet… I’ll take another go tonight, I can dig a bit better with my computer.” 

She gives him a wide smile and is halfway off the counter before pausing and leaning back to plant a quick kiss over Hardison’s eye. Then Parker’s gone in a flash and pouncing on Cassandra who had just exited the washroom. The dark skinned man watches her go with a soft smile for a moment before turning back to look at his phone.

_He didn’t like this._

He couldn’t find a single speck of any of Eliot’s new friends anywhere on the web, and that included the so called NATO officer. It was like they were ghosts, or had never existed or… 

Or they had a really good hacker covering their tracks.

Oh…this might not be good.

No, Do not freak out, it’s not a big deal Alec… 

None of them notice the smoke starting to filter in under the front door and the cracked open windows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the awesome reviews everyone!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Ezekiel..."
> 
> "Hello Eliot."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is starting to drag but thank you to everyone who has stuck with it this far. I hope you enjoy the super awkward and tension filled meeting between Eliot and Ezekiel.
> 
> There's boys kissing in this so...well, I hope you know that from the super awful tags I've been using... Enjoy.

It takes Ezekiel well over three hours to calm himself down enough to climb to the ground again and find where he left the back door. When he slinks back into the Annex, he finds the lights lowered and Jenkins sitting on top of the large table waiting for him. 

The look of understanding on the immortals face makes Ezekiel want to throw something and run right back though the door. Only he doesn’t. Instead he sighs and moves towards the table, heaving himself up into the spot next to the caretaker. 

Jenkins smiles and passes the thief a saucer with a cup of his favourite oolong tea and one of his special biscuits; one of the few things in the world the immortal will bother eating. He smiles softly when Ezekiel takes it without comment. It’s still hot and vaguely Ezekiel wonders if the caretaker has physic powers to go along with his immortality. 

The silence filling the Annex isn’t uncomfortable but Ezekiel feels the need to fill it anyway. “I know Stone’s brother.” He admits carefully. 

“I never asked Mr. Jones.” Jenkins says quietly kicking his legs back and forth as he keeps his eyes on the globe. 

“I know… but, I just… I don’t know how to tell Jak-Stone…” 

Ageless brown eyes finally turn to the young man sitting beside him and Jenkins is suddenly reminded of Arthur laying next to him in the grass and wondering how on Earth he was going to be a king. “Well, deciding to tell Mr. Stone about your relationship with Eliot Spencer is the logical first step.”

Ezekiel frowns over the rim of his tea cup and narrows his eyes at Jenkins. “Is there anything you don’t know?” Because he’s sure now that the older man already knew what was going on for the past week. 

Jenkins shrugs guilelessly, “When you’ve been alive as long as I have, you tend to notice certain things about people.” He pushes himself off the table and straightens out his suit. “Your complete avoidance of Mr. Stone after the discovery of his brother not withstanding.”

Their quiet conversation is ground to a halt when the Clippings Book starts freaking out behind them. Ezekiel flings his legs over the table top to land on the opposite side and heads right for the large book that’s starting to lift up off of it’s stand.

“Well that can’t be good.” Jenkins mutters looking over Ezekiel’s shoulder as a map of downtown Portland shows up on the yellowed pages. 

Ezekiel feels his stomach fall right out of him as he sees a design start to take shape right where the brew pub should be on the map. “That’s the tracker I put on Baird.” As if on cue his phone alarm starts going off.

Jenkins disapproving look is short lived as he heads back towards his desk. “Well then, it again appears your fears were not completely unfounded Ezekiel.” He states.

‘Funny how thats been working.’ Ezekiel thinks to himself. Looks like he was going to the brew pub despite everything. 

—

So they got kidnapped… Again. Eve is less then impressed as she pulls on the metal bars surrounding her, Jake and Eliot. A few feet away from them Cassandra does the same where she’s trapped with Parker and Hardison. The two prisons are identical in their bird cage like design and the ominous cavern burns red around them. She sighs heavily, as she shares a look with Cassandra. “Druids?” 

“Druids.” The red head huffs smacking the iron bars one last time before crossing her arms angrily. 

Parker looks absolutely sour next to her. The thief had reached around to where the heavy lock sat against the door but every time she had gotten close an electric charge had sent her hand flying back. 

Hardison pats her on the shoulder and promises to get her an ice cream on the way home because “It’s a magic lock Mama, no one can pick a magic lock.”

Jake growls under his breath and it sounds so angry that Cassandra and Eve turn to their scarf wielding historian.

“What?” Eliot frowns looking at his sibling because that was their annoyed sound and he hates that look on his brothers face, not having seen it in years. 

“You **can** pick a magic lock, only the idiot that normally does isn’t here right now!” Jake huffs. He’s not a hundred percent sure why Eve is glaring at him like that. “What?! You can’t tell me I’m wrong!” Jake fumes at the anger curling around inside of him. Leave it to Jones to be missing when they really need him. 

Eve shakes her head at the historian. “Stone…”

Jake just kicks at the metal cage and slides down to sit on the ground with a huff.

—

Ezekiel is silent as he makes his way down further into the dark cavern, the magic reader in his hands whirling softly as he goes. He’s honestly amazed that Druids have gotten so bad at being evil lately.

The Aussie makes it to the end of the corridor, shoving the magic detector into his back pocket so he can peer around the corner of the doorway and into the cave. The room had several more exits carved into the rock and the red glow only serves to add to the ominous atmosphere. Given any other situation, the thief would chuckle at the corniness of the evil lair. 

God he hates Druids.

Then his eyes land on the two cages he’s just out of sight line of and Ezekiel freezes. 

Eve, bless her, looks murderous; like she’s ready to shoot something but can’t because Jake asked her to leave her gun at the Annex before they left.

Everyone else seems unharmed though and Ezekiel breathes a silent sigh of relief. Cassandra is okay, even if she looks annoyed, but oddly not as annoyed as Parker. Ezekiel smirks a little as he watches the blonde thief eye the height of the cage and then test the rigidity of the metal with her boot. It’s nice to know she hasn’t changed.

But then Ezekiel spots Jake sitting on the floor of the cage he’s in with Eve and brown eyes scan over historian, looking for wounds but lets his shoulders sag in relief when he sees that even Stone is unharmed. Then Ezekiel can’t help the way he flinches back into the shadows because.... sitting next to Jake.... is… 

Eliot.

Lithe fingers clutch at the rock beneath his hands and Ezekiel slides down the wall of the entrance, taking a moment to try hold back the rush of emotion welling up in his throat. He presses his hands to his mouth in a desperate attempt to stem the explosion of thought suddenly in his head from spilling out loud. 

Eliot looks good, he lets himself think at last.

It’s an amazing sight for him, to see the two brothers next to each other and Ezekiel’s heart beats a frantic rhythm in his chest. There’s an old familiar panic digging into his bones, one that’s telling him to run; but there’s also a clench around his lungs that’s solely due to how relieved he is to see the Hitter.

He knows he doesn’t have a lot of time, the Druids power source this time is a carved blue stone that beats faintly in his rucksack. (He may have grabbed it on his way past the empty shrine room on his way in... druids... what are you even?) They’re bound to realize that it’s missing sooner rather then later and Ezekiel would like to be as far away as possible when that happens. All he needs to do is go into the room where a scarier, more blood soaked and gritty chapter of his past is sitting with the hopeful glimmers he wants for a future.

Easy.

Ezekiel idly wonders how much shit Jenkins would give him if he just turned around and bribed the older man to come rescue the others for him…

‘Okay, you can do this. You’re Ezekiel Jones. It’s only Spencer…. Buck up mate.... Cassandra is in there. Jake is in there and so is Baird. You can’t leave them to be Druid food.’

The thief thinks he really needs to work on his own motivational speeches. 

Okay.

He can do this.

He robbed Fort Knox on a whim.

He can face one man.

Maybe.

Ezekiel thinks he’s rather rob Fort Knox again then do this.

_’Just focus on Cassandra and Jake.’_

With a deep breath Ezekiel creeps out of the shadows and towards the cages. Plastering on his normal cocky grin, he gets closer then he expected too without being noticed. (He figures being the last person Eliot or Parker would expect helps a great deal with this.)

“All your combined IQ and muscle, and I’m still the one hauling you arses from prison.” 

Jake blinks in surprise at Ezekiel’s voice and he’s not the only one. Next to him he can feel Eliot go rigid and Hardison and Cassandra jump back together in shock. The historian doesn’t have time to question it before Ezekiel is kneeling down in front of the lock. “Where the hell did you come from?” Jake snaps climbing to his feet.

Ezekiel rolls his eyes and refrains from looking at the older man. 

Eve however just sends him a thankful grin through the bars of the cage. She watches as their thief uses a small blue crystal on the magic defences around the cage door before picking the padlock with ease. “What the hell took you?” 

He shrugs, doing his best to work past his nerves because he’s here now, his cover is blown so Ezekiel may as well act as casual about it as he can to try and limit the fallout. “Wow Ezekiel, you’re so awesome, thanks for the save.” The lock falls easily from his hands and he immediately gets to work on the second cage as Eve and Jake push the door open behind him. Ezekiel can feel heavy blue eyes on the back of his neck as the second lock falls just as quickly and the thief straightens up slowly. 

Those eyes following him.

The Australian turns to look behind him and identical twins they may be, but Eliot’s eyes have always been that shade darker and so much more haunted then Jakes. There’s the familiar scar above his brow and the one on his upper lip that’s courtesy of a brass knuckle used on him in Oslo. Not to mention the small sliver of scar tissue that runs along Eliot’s jaw, just out of sight unless the man tilted his head back. 

Eliot is staring at Ezekiel, wide eyed and his hand has a white knuckled grip on the iron door as he looks over the other thief among them.

Ezekiel figures he really should have thought out this rescue a bit more, or at least have thought up an Eliot back up plan because this is a thousand times more painful for him then he thought it would be. “Hello Eliot.” he greets softer then he means too. 

Jakes frowns, confusion and anger warring inside of him as he looks between his brother and his thief. There’s an expression on Ezekiel’s face that he’s never seen before, that he wasn’t even aware that the younger mans face could make. 

Like happiness, relief, pain and regret.

 _“Ezekiel,”_ Eliot’s voice is barely a whisper and it’s just as gutted as when he stood beside his brother over their mothers casket at thirteen. 

The hitter moves first, breaking the spell of silence around them and Ezekiel doesn’t even have time to flinch back because before he knows it Eliot is striding forward, gripping his shoulders tightly to haul him closer so the hitter can pull him into a searing kiss.

It’s a desperate kiss, full of teeth, tongue, disbelief and fear and Ezekiel feels panic surge for a moment but then… it all just falls away.

’Fuck back up plans,’ Ezekiel thinks; hands coming up to frame Eliot’s face and he lets himself sink into the old familiar feeling of kissing Eliot before the thief slowly pulls himself away.

Suddenly the sound of a knife being unsheathed behind him echoes around the cave. Eve has her small dagger raised, pointed straight at Jakes brother who is holding on a little too tightly to her librarian. The kiss seems to have thrown everyone else, Jake staring in wide eyed horror at his sibling while Parker and Hardison are glaring daggers at Ezekiel. Cassandra… well, her face is red but her eyes have that spark she usually reserves for stupidly difficult math problem as she watches in surprised interest. 

“Drop him right now.” Eve orders.

Ezekiel chuckles low under his breath, pulling himself away from Eliot’s tight grip even if he can feel the way the older twin is hesitant to let him go. “It’s ok Colonel,” he assures her, scooping to pick up the lock picks he dropped. His heart is going a mile a minute inside his chest and Ezekiel would like nothing more to do than to be anywhere but here. Preferably back on the other side of the world…or another dimension. “There’s no point anymore…”

Eve isn’t sure what’s going on anymore. The kiss aside, she was expecting a blood curling tension between Jones and Spencer. The kind of tension that will hang by a thread in the middle of a battlefield as each side waits for the other to make the first move. And it’s there…only this tension...is different. It’s powerful and potent, laced with emotions and a history Eve just doesn’t understand.

She wants it to stop. 

Immediately.

Every single one of her guardian instincts is shouting at her to put herself bodily between the thief and the hitter. 

(ProtectJonesProtectJonesProtectEzekiel)

However she’s barely lifted her foot off the ground, ready to step in, when suddenly Eliot is breaking the deafening tension around them.

“How did you open that?” The hitter asks lowly, carefully. His hand is still close enough to brush the side of Ezekiel’s cheek and Eliot smirks heatedly at the flush rising to the Aussies face.

It is in every sense such an easy query but it only seems to make Ezekiel’s eyes narrow in annoyance, like anyone should bother ask him that. The thief has to shake Eliot’s hand away from his cheek, only vaguely remembering they have an audience before he makes an indignant look cross his face. Ezekiel doesn’t even deign to reply, instead the thief huffs angrily, spinning on his heel and storming away towards the exit with a blush colouring the back of his neck.

Eve turns from her Librarian’s retreating back to glance at Spencer, checking to make sure he’s not angered by Ezekiel’s behaviour. She’s looking for the desire to hurt in the Hitters face… only, what she sees on the older twins face isn’t anger. 

It’s relief. 

It’s amusement. 

It’s soft.

Oh, Eve thinks. She knows that look.

Oh! Eve thinks as her entire world crashes down around her.

Jones and Spencer.

_Ezekiel and Eliot._

**_EzekielandEliot._ **

Her mother may have trained her to not to curse, but she’s sure the woman would make an exception in this case. _(Shitmutherfuckinghellinahandbasketshitshitshit)_ Well at least that explained the lip lock...

She’s not the only one looking at the two in shock. 

Hardison’s arms are flapping wildly around at, well, everything and Eves never seen anyone look as gobsmacked as the hacker in that moment. Except for perhaps Cassandra’s, who’s face is as red as her hair as she blushes fiercely. 

Parker herself has gone quiet, eyes unreadable and glued to Eliot’s back as he starts to follow Ezekiel without hesitation. She doesn’t seem to pay any attention to the way Hardison is freaking out next to her.

Stone….well, Jake looks like he’s had his stomach ripped out of him and is watching someone paint bad poetry on the walls with it. 

Eve feels an immediate wave of sympathy for him and silently vows to send the man on a vacation some point in the near future. Seeing your brother kiss your teammate could not be easy for the southern man.

“What was that all about?” Cassandra asks, mock whispering as she leans into Eve’s side.

“Honestly Red, I have no idea.” Eve really doesn’t. Not anymore. She just places a hand on Cassandra’s back and starts to lead the female librarian after Ezekiel and Eliot. 

Jake, Parker and Hardison lag behind, watching them leave and the three of them are all wearing identical looks that are impossible to describe. Parkers eyes are cold as she looks to her boyfriend. “I don’t like it. Jones can’t steal our Eliot.” 

Hardison nods next to her, his hands rubbing his head before slipping slipping down lifelessly to his sides. “Fucking Ezekiel Jones…man, this is crazy.”

The historian whips his head around to ask Hardison exactly what he meant by that but Eve is hissing back at them to hurry up before they get left behind. Without a backwards glance the three jog to catch up to Eve and Cassandra.

Parker growls lowly and looks at Hardison. “You said it. You said these people weren’t going to take Eliot away from us.”

Hardison looks trapped but Jake whirls on Parker, his blue eyes flashing “What the hell does that mean! He a’nit yours!”

“Yes he is!” Parker snaps back.

“Guys stop…look, Eliot Spencer and Ezekiel Jones have a history.” Eve replies sadly and around her Cassie, Jake, Parker and Hardison all turn to look at her. She really wants to be several feet ahead where Jones is leading them out. Eliot is holding pace with her youngest librarian, situated right in his blind spot, as if covering him whatever may jump out at them and the movement between the two is seamless.

“What kinda history?” Jake asks wearily. He really doesn’t want to know. His chest is hurting enough as it is from just watching them kiss. He had expected a lot of things….but not this. Anything but this.

“Not a good one.” She sighs as the group quietly makes there way out of the cave, through the magic portal that spits them into the empty Portland subway. 

‘This is going to be a long walk home.’ Eve thinks to herself as she bites her lip with a grimace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. One more chapter to go!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shared fears, pasts and understandings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.... I lied... this is the second to final last chapter.... my bad... Thank you to everyone who reads this and all of your reviews have been wonderful! Thank you so much!

Eve’s made a lot of long walks in her life. Across deserts, scorching hot and unforgiving, through dank alleyways full of the lowest of the low and worse. However the walk back from the subway to the Portland Brew pub is defiantly ranked up there on the list of worst marches ever. 

Ezekiel leads the way, closely followed by both Eliot and Jake with a quieter than normal Cassandra. Eve herself brings up the read with Hardison who is doing his best to get the death glare off of Parkers face. 

He isn’t succeeding, but the effort is nice to see, Eve thinks. 

By the time they make it back to the pub Cassandra is dragging her feet in exhaustion and Jake is almost visibly twitching as he looks between his brother and the thief in front of them. 

When they set foot through the front doors of the brew pub, Baird sees the old familiar blue glow under the entrance to the female washroom and she feels a sigh of relief go through her at the sight. Almost home.

It’s only the fact that Jones and Eliot doesn’t stop walking that pulls that relief away from her. The hitter reaches out to grab onto Ezekiel’s upper arm and starts to drag the thief towards the door along the back of the room maker ‘employees only’, and Baird finds herself moving after them immediately. 

“Jones?” Her tone is enough to make them stop and Eve sends Ezekiel a questioning look.

The thief just gives her a tight smile and shakes his head, not bothering to remove his arm from Eliot’s grasp. Ezekiel knows theres not a chance in hell he’d be able to pull his arm away. He also doesn’t dare to look behind him at Jake or Cassandra, their wide eyed and confused looks are starting to dig into parts of him that he didn’t know could still feel twisted.

“Its okay Baird...” (Ezekiel hopes and hopes and hopes it’ll be okay) and lets Eliot pull him away into the back room and Baird frowns at the look of trepidation on her youngest librarians face.

 _Trepidation._

Not fear.

 _Sorrow._ **Guilt.**

Not the panic she had seen a week ago. 

Not the fear she had felt then.

Nothing more than the apprehension of seeing someone from his past.

—

As soon as the door to the backroom closes behind them Eliot uses his not inconsiderable strength to haul the young librarian as close as he can. 

Ezekiel was at worst, expecting a knife in his chest. Maybe a punch to the face, and at best, another kiss like the one they shared back in the druids prison. 

(He thinks if he was really lucky he’d get a kiss like he did in Croatia.)

This hug however, it’s stuck right between comforting and throwing him for a loop. It must be a Stone-Spencer thing, to give bear hugs like this he thinks. They’re all encompassing warmth in hard muscle and somehow feeling so incredibly safe in arms that could kill you in seconds.

Ezekiel breathes in the unfamiliar cologne, but the shampoo is somehow still the same and it sends him back to what feels like forever ago; to a too hot room and sharp Tequila, to a beautiful coast line and a high end job for the worst of the world.

“I’m sorry.” Ezekiel finally whispers, his arms settling in low around Eliot’s waist. He can’t help but wonder if Jake would fit into his arms this well. “I had to leave…”

Hot breath ghosts over Ezekiel’s neck and Eliot shakes his head.

“I-I thought Damien got to you…after what ya said… when I woke up alone..”

Of all things in this world that Eliot could have said, that’s he last thing Ezekiel would have ever expected. The words drop ice into his stomach and fear into his veins and now the thief is the one who is clinging to Eliot. Ezekiel didn’t know it was possible to feel worse about their situation but the world does like to prove him wrong.

He kind of wants to throw up.

“Bloody hell Spencer....” Ezekiel’s words are watery and this was **not** supposed to happen. Eliot was never supposed to take his words so strongly to heart. Not from back then when neither of them knew what they were doing or what they wanted. 

They were just surviving. 

In reality, that’s all they’ve ever done. Ezekiel was never supposed to influence the great Eliot Spencer. Eliot was never suppose to be okay with letting Ezekiel live. They were never suppose to be anything to each other except a one _(two,three,four,five)_ night they were supposed to forget.

Ezekiel wishes he had never opened his big mouth; wishes he had never laid eyes on this man.

It’s just... he’d seen a lot of things by that point. Seen a lot of priceless art and paintings and codes back in those day, but none of it had meant anything once he was introduced to the bodyguard of Damien Moreau and his entire world decided to go arse over tit. He saw Eliot Spencer and immediately wanted to crack open the safe he was keeping his heart in, he all of a sudden wanted to twist and turn every tumbler Eliot was using to hold his soul together and break every single one of them. 

He had thought that would have been the greatest heist of them all, to abscond with everything the Eliot Spencer was.

Those feelings has scared the shit out of him back then and they still do.

He really thinks Eliot should be punching him, not hugging him…not kissing him. 

Doing things that so weren’t Eliot fucking Spencer. 

Things like suddenly explaining in his ear about how when Ezekiel disappeared, that it was the start of his breaking point and how only a few months later Eliot cut ties with Moreau. Telling him about how he tossed and turned over the things Ezekiel said to him that night in Split. 

How he still remembers every single word.

Eliot cups the back of his head and Ezekiel can’t pull himself away. Doesn’t want too. The older mans arms are strong around him and yet clinging to him at the same time. This is a different Eliot than before… one that Ezekiel doesn’t want to break because there isn’t much holding him together anymore. 

Except, he thinks, maybe Parker and Hardison are. He feels like maybe Eliot might be the one to break **him** this time, because he’s seen the looks through his video feed that Eliot’s friends have been sending the older man when they think he isn’t looking. They’re the exact same ones Ezekiel finds himself making when Stone and Cassandra turn away from him. That want and desire and hope and the inability to say anything about it. He gets it. 

God, does he ever get it…

He thinks Eliot will find out soon enough though. Parker and Haridson are just like him, on that side of the grey area that make them mostly the same. That for all the darkness sitting inside of Eliot, the other two wouldn’t let it colour what they know of the hitter and they would love him just the same. Jake and Cassandra though… well…

They’re a little more on the white side of things and Ezekiel doesn’t want to be the one responsible for shading in their world view. He’s broken enough things in his past, he can’t make them one of them too.

“Hey…Hey, Eliot.” Ezekiel whispers and tugs on the back of the other mans shirt. “It’s okay, come on mate.”

Finally pulling his face away from the soft black hair in front of him Eliot leans back so he can stare in wonder at the face in front of him. All this time thinking the kid had been dead, only to find him alive and whole… it settles something inside of the hitter he had buried a long, long time ago.

Every word Ezekiel can think of, that he’s always wanted to say, it all falls away and instead he he just lets his shoulders sag. There’s too much emotion in the room for either of them to be comfortable and Ezekiel is having a hard enough time just trying to process the way Eliot is looking at him. 

In the end, they don’t need to say anything.

The two of them stand in their awkward hug for longer then they’d usually let themselves; but at this point they don’t care. They don’t need words, they never have. There’s no need to explain. 

Eliot dips his hand and presses it against the faded scar just below Ezekiel’s shoulder and grins when the lithe figure in his arms shudders. He knows that scar intimately. “I’m glad you’re okay.” It’s a confession that is breathed so lowly that if Eliot’s mouth hadn’t been pressed against his ear Ezekiel would have though he had imagined the words. 

Ezekiel pulls himself back and Eliot’s hands settle on his waist, “I’m glad you’re okay too.” The Australian echoes and he _means_ it. 

It’s more sentiment than either of them want to bear, but now, they know it’s okay. Ezekiel won’t tell and neither will Eliot. Ezekiel feels a calloused hand in his hair and sighs at the familiar feeling. The tender action hurts every part of his heart he still feels in but regardless he lets Eliot drag him up for one more kiss. 

It’s barely a press of lips but it’s enough.

It’s more of a goodbye than they’ve ever had before. 

—

Eve is the only one waiting for him when Ezekiel exits the back room, Eliot on his heels. She’s sitting at the bar alone with a half empty pint in front of her while Parker and Hardison are missing; there’s still the familiar glow under the washroom door that tells him where the other two Librarians have departed too and….Ezekiel didn’t think he could be so relieved and so disappointed at the same time. 

The last thing he wants right now is to face Stone, (even if he knows he has to). Ezekiel just really needs to see how badly he’s screwed up this time. He wants to curl up next to Jake in the dark recesses f the library and bury his face in Cassandra’s hair. 

Sharp blue eyes look up and Ezekiel feels them settle on him just as Eliot pulls his arm away. Eve is still watching every move Spencer makes around him and it makes him kind of stupidly happy.

“Hey, take care of yourself okay…and don’t be afraid to pop by a’right?” Eliot finally whispers, and Ezekiel closes his eyes, almost like he’s in pain when the hitter presses a kiss to the side of his head. 

Baird watches with rapt attention as Eliot disappears and silence falls between the two remaining library workers. Eve so desperately wants to ask but one look at her charges face makes her hold back. 

“Ready to go home?” She asks instead sliding off her bar stool.

“Depends…” Ezekiel sighs heavily even though he’s beyond ready. “Are you going to finish that?” he asks pointing to her beer. 

Eve doesn’t comment, just slides the glass down to him and shakes her head when Ezekiel downs the rest of it in one go. It gives her a moment to look at the thief closer and the Guardian feels her heart clench. The look in Ezekiel’s eyes sends her back to the previous week, the two of them sitting in the Reading Room with the lights off and dangerous faces on his computer screen. Ezekiel is wearing the same confused and frightened look he wore that night but tonight… tonight Eve has a different perspective on her thief and the hitter. 

It wasn’t just the fear making Ezekiel cautious. 

It was his heart.

A bruised and battered heart that had no idea what to expect. And she thinks that makes his face look different too.

“Ready?” Eve asks lowly.

“No.” Ezekiel replies honestly but they make their way to the glowing door together, regardless. 

Cassandra and Jenkins are standing by the caretakers desk when Eve and Ezekiel step back into the Annex through the Back Door and they can both see the way the you woman is bursting at the seams with questions. 

Eve can see how sleepy Cassandra is but the Colonel muses that the need for rest has never stopped Cassandra before. Something else seems to be holding her back this time however. The red headed woman clicks her jaw shut as she lays eyes on the tired looking Australian and Baird sighs to herself.

Cassandra almost can’t help the way she opens her mouth again, questions almost spilling out but once more she refrains. Instead she gives each of them a watery smile as she moves forwards, taking Ezekiel’s hand in hers to pull the thief close. It’s a small comfort but means the world to Ezekiel then. 

Jenkins nods approvingly from his spot a few steps away and Ezekiel doesn’t think he’s ever appreciated either of them more than in that moment. 

Stone however... is gone. 

His laptop, his bag and jacket are all missing and Ezekiel ducks his face into the side of Cassandra’s hair so he doesn’t have to see the emptiness of the usual cluttered desk. It smells like strawberries and honey and that grounds him more than he thought possible with the way his heart is bleeding all over the place.

Jake’s left... and all Ezekiel can hope is that he’ll be back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me, I promise it's over soon.... and I've only have five beer tonight... so it will actually be done fairly quickly :D


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Andddd, that's everything. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! Your encouragement means the world to me!
> 
> This chapter contains Lit'sOT3... even if it reads more like Jake/Ezekiel... Sorry about that.

Stone ignores him for three days and Ezekiel just has to throw his hands up in frustration at the role reversal. He’s as completely done as Baird is, the poor woman having to work as a go between Jake and the rest of them for the past day or so while not answering any more questions than she had too. 

Cassandra also has been stuck between them, the red head not wanting to choose either man’s side but still doing her best to make each of them feel better. Ezekiel should have known better than to get involved with the Stone after the Spencer fiasco… and if his heart would stop being so stupid about shit, he’d completely forget ever having had feelings for either Eliot or Jake. 

But mostly for Jake. 

His feelings towards Eliot hadn’t been healthy- hadn’t been sane or safe- for either of them; and what his heart did now around Jake, was beyond anything he had ever felt it do for the mans brother. The only feeling that was on par with how Stone made him feel was what he felt for Cassandra.

It was enough to drive him for a loop. 

Finally Ezekiel decides he’s had enough and that this stalemate of theirs has to stop. He’ may be a thief, and he’s run away from a lot of things- terrible food, law enforcement and the government; but matters of the heart not so much. Those, he tends to face head on so he can get over them as fast as possible and move on with his life. 

Except… now… 

Now he wants to keep saving the stupid world with Jake and Cassandra as long as possible.

 _Bloody no good heart,_ he thinks. 

The thief lets Ray guide him as he sneaks into the library and into the far reaches of the Mesopatamian Art section to the growly historian hiding amongst it’s shelves. The spirit of the library doesn’t steer him wrong and Ezekiel finds himself staring down the length of a bookcase to Jake.

Jake, who is staring down at a large leather bound tomb covered with scribbles that Ezekiel can’t be bothered with, and a frown of epic proportions marring his features.

Ezekiel makes it to the table behind him without Jake noticing and he knows right then that Jakes’ more upset then the avoidance made him seem. (Baird going to have the man’s head for his lack of attention to his surroundings.) Finally the Aussie takes a deep breath and sticks his hand in the proverbial motion sensor.

“Hey, you got a tic?” Ezekiel asks quietly, leaning against the table carefully as he watches the older man whip around to glare at him. 

“What the hell ya’ want?” Jake curses, snapping his book closed before shoving it back onto the shelf. The cowboy grits his teeth at the small skip inside his chest as Ezekiel slides around the table to move that little bit closer. It’s only been a few days but apparently he’s missed the other librarian more than he cares to admit because the sight of him calms a little of the hurt roiling inside of him.

Well, it calms it for a small moment before the sight of his brother hauling the thief forward comes barreling back to the front and centre of his mind and no matter what he does, Jake can’t think of anything else. 

“Thought we could talk,”

“There aint nothin’ to talk about.” 

Ezekiel raises an unbelieving eyebrow and steps closer to the most infuriating man he’s ever met. He wants to strangle Stone just as much as he wants to kiss him. God’s he wishes Cassandra was here. She’s good at speaking Jake. “I think there’s a lot to talk about…”

Stone’s blue eyes harden and before he gets the chance to turn away, Ezekiel is stepping right up into his space and crossing his arms. “Look, If you’re mad I didn’t tell you about Eliot-”

“You slept with my brother!” Jake snaps angrily, his anger and hurt all bubbling up at the thought of the two. Jealously courses though his veins and it makes Jake sick to his own stomach.

Ezekiel just rolls his eyes and growls under his breath. “So? I slept with Parker too, what’s you’re point? Hell mate, if you weren’t such a goddam prude I would’ve slept with you too by now!”

Every single atom that makes up Jacob Stone freezes a Ezekiel’s words crash into his brain and cause it to finally stop for the first time in decades. The historian stares at the thief with his jaw hanging open, “W-wh-at?”

Brown eyes reach for the ceiling again and Ezekiel just throws his hands up in the air. He’s already done with this argument. With this whole stupid situation. They could be pashing on the couch right now instead of dealing with this nonsense. “You’re thick as shit Stone. I haven’t been exactly subtle about it.”

Jake thinks Ezekiel has been very very very subtle about it. Theres no way he could have missed this….right….

“Honestly, like a week after we first got to the library, you remember when I kept asking you out for drinks?”

_So Jones was not just being friendly?_

“Or when you’d stay up ridiculously late typing and I’d just hang by your desk?”

_So Jones was not just bored?_

“And when I fight with you about stuff because I like to watch the way you defend some stupid painting.”

_So Jones was not just being an ass?_

“Not to mention how I’m always touching you! And I’m like the least tactile person on the planet mate!”

“But you do those things to Cassandra too!” Jake’s interrupts suddenly as his brain decides to come back online and the historian is greeted to a sight he never thought he’d see in his life. 

Ezekiel’s neck and cheeks are scarlet and the thief lets his eyes snap closed in mortification. “Bloody hell Stone…”

Embarrassment looks stupidly attractive on him, Jake can’t help but think and…Oh- 

**Oh.**

“Both of us?”

**It’s not just him thats fallin’ for two people then.**

Ezekiel doesn’t open his eyes as he whips around to make to leave. This had been such a monumentally bad idea, he thinks. It’s one thing to stand there and listen to Jake yell at him, he can take that… he expects that. Ezekiel can even take the oblivious nature of the other man, has dealt with it for well over a year now. However Ezekiel was not going to let Jake be the one to condemn him for falling for two of the strongest, most beautiful people he had ever met, at the same time. His brain did it enough for everyone.

A strong hand wraps around his wrist and Ezekiel winces at the grip before he’s suddenly slammed into the nearest bookcase. He thinks oddly how it’s going to be Jake thats going to punch him, not Eliot… even if both others the twins deserve to. 

Only Jake is crowding him back against the shelf even more and Ezekiel barely gets his eyes open before they’re falling closed again, this time in pleasure as Jake hauls him into a searing kiss that leaves both of them breathless when they finally part moments later. Jake’s blue eyes spark like lightening across Ezekiel’s face, taking in the slack jawed surprise and the glassy heated look in the younger mans’ chocolate coloured eyes. 

“You’re not just using me as a replacement for Eliot are you?” It’s a real fear of his and Jake feels his words break the sudden heat between them. He’s sad to see it go; but he has to know. It had happened so often in high school; Eliot having always been everything he wasn’t. Everything the girls sought after, everything his teachers had thought they should be and everything their father had _wanted_ ; until the night of a fight that left Eliot overseas and Jake with a drunk and a business he never wanted. Jake doesn’t know if he could take being an Eliot replacement for Ezekiel too and his heart rabbits inside his chest at the thought that maybe, just maybe…if the thief says no… he could have what **he** wanted for a change.

Ezekiel must see how far the worry and concern are set into his face because slowly the thief reaches up to cup the other mans face and pull him closer. Jake inhales sharply at the feeling, the nearness feels wonderful and yet so foreign to him at the same time and Jake knows he shouldn’t be letting his guard down, not yet, not in this situation- even as he feels it fall away around him. 

_This could hurt._

“Stone...Jake... you and Eliot. You’re two very different people.” Ezekiel mutters, his voice oddly soft in the giant expanse of the library. “What Eliot and I had-what we did. That wasn’t love mate, it wasn’t even close to it.”

Jakes eyes are wide and he feels his breath catch in his throat as he casts his gaze downwards. The jealousy and anger hurt still. “It sure looked like it...” Eliot’s never looked at anyone like he looked at Ezekiel, not unless he meant it, he thinks. He knows his brother. 

“No. It really didn’t;” Ezekiel states firmly and uses his grip to drag Stone’s gaze back to his. “but while I can tell you it that it wasn’t love, I can’t pretend it wasn’t something else…Jake, it was an understanding. It was something painless that we shared in a time when both of us were so stupidly lost we couldn’t even see the surface.” Some dark shadow passes over the smooth tan skin but it’s gone a moment later. “Back then neither of us could have loved even if we wanted too.”

A strong callused hand covers Ezekiel’s and Jake swears he can feel his own pulse through the lithe fingers trapped in his. Jake desperately wants to know just how bad stuff had gotten for Ezekiel back then, and desperately doesn’t at the same time.

“Eliot and I...” Here Ezekiel pauses, his own eyes going downcast this time. This was just as hard as he thought it was going to be. “That was the first thing I felt in a long time. Your brother had a lock around his heart and his soul and it was all I could do to pick it open, I couldn’t help myself. But you, Jake, you’re so much like an open book. You give your emotions freely, even if you hide away those other parts of you.”

Jake tilts the other mans head up with his free hand and he’s shocked when he sees how glassy Ezekiel’s eyes are. “Zeke...you—“

The thief just shakes his head the best he can without dislodging Jakes grip. They’re holding on so tightly to each other now. _Clinging._ “I’ve never met anyone like you. No one gives anything for free, I know that better than anyone, but there you were, with all your words and emotions spilling out all over the place. With that part of you practically screaming for someone to ask, to understand you… I thought you were daft at first you know, that despite everything with your family and everything you never said to them, you still opened yourself up to be hurt when you met us. When you were angry, you said it, if you got stupidly excited over a painting, everyone here knew.”

Blue eyes darken at Ezekiel’s words, he’s never heard the thief speak so honestly from the heart.

“You can open yourself to hurt because you still have something left of you that can bear that kind of pain.” Ezekiel sighs, voice losing it’s desperate edge. “Eliot and I aren’t like that anymore… we never were.”

That one sentence makes Jakes heart shatter inside his chest. “Ezekiel.” The name is like a whisper on his lips.

“You asked me if I wanted you as a replacement….my answer is no, Jake. I don’t.” Ezekiel smile wavers as he tries to hold back a flood of emotion he’s been keeping buried for years. “There’s nothing to replace. I care about Eliot because of everything we never had to give each other. I like you because you make me want to give you things I never knew I had in me to give anyone.”

Jake speaks over a dozen languages, can read another dozen more and write almost every one of them. He’s read love poems in original Italian and 18th century Latin. He’s read sonnets and haikus about beauty and death, life and honour; everything Spanish medieval love poets ever wrote; 

But none of them are as beautiful as the confession Ezekiel just laid upon him. 

He figures he should probably let the thief up for air soon....

Ezekiel gasps for breath when Jake pulls away, dark brown eyes alit and red lips swollen as he gives the historian a hooded look. There’s a bookshelf digging into his lower back but Ezekiel is so far beyond caring, because it’s Jake who’s pinning him to it. Jake who isn’t angry, who isn’t Eliot. 

It’s Jake who’s pressing back in, mouth hard and demanding as he wraps the arm not on the thief’s neck around Ezekiel’s waist to haul him closer, his hand sliding under the thief’s jacket and shirt to press against warm skin with calloused fingers.

Ezekiel lets out a muffled whimper, his own fingers scrabbling in Jakes jacket. This kiss is all heat and fire and passion and-

“Well this certainly looks better.”

The two men break apart, their breathing loud in the quiet of the library as they turn to see Cassandra sitting on the edge of the table, watching them with her own hungry gaze as she props her chin . She looks pleased and relieved at the same time and- well, she’s only human, so she’s probably staring at the two entwined bodies with a glimmer of heat in her eyes. The room smells like a tantalizing mix of leather, tangerine and the ocean and Cassandra grins widely at the combination.

Stone smirks at her comment, his upstairs brain finally catching up to the woman’s statement.  
“There you are, I was wondering when you were going to stop hiding behind that bookcase.”

Cassandra shrugs, happy enough to sit back and ogle the sight before her. “You two needed to talk.” She states simply, smiling towards the thief who is looking back at her fondly. 

“Well? You going to come join us or what?” Ezekiel chuckles, his voice deep and accent laced with a promise that has shivers going down the backs of the other two librarians. 

“That depends,” the red head jokes getting to her feet, her pleated skirt moving back and forth gently as she makes her way over to her boys. “You happen to have any of those fancy romantic sentences you claim to hate so much left over for me?” Cassandra slips into the small welcoming space Jake and Ezekiel open for her between them. 

_It’s a perfect fit of limbs and tangled breaths._

Ezekiel cocks his head to the side and glances at her for a moment. The grin he gives her in the next moment as he leans towards her makes Cassandra so very glad that Eliot Spencer could never hold onto their thief. She’d fight the hitter tooth and nail for Ezekiel now if she had too and she bets so would Jake. 

Giving Jake a mischievous look over Cassandra’s shoulder, Ezekiel presses the genius closer to him and whispers into her ear so quietly Jake can’t hear despite his closeness. It doesn’t seem to matter however because seconds later the red head is pulling her head back and Ezekiel taps under Cassie’s chin as her lip begins to wobble.

“I want to too .” Cassandra whispers back, tears in her voice and in her eyes as she bodily shoves Jake out of the way to take her own desperate kiss from Ezekiel. The thief is laughing and so is Cassandra while Jake shakes his head at both of them, and it’s the best Ezekiel’s felt since Alec Hardison walked in to Portland and decided to open a brewpub. 

Yeah, Ezekiel thinks; he is going to colour their world view. Hopefully not just with the black marring his soul, but with all the colours he’s discovered since knowing them. 

They’re going to work.

The road may be bumpy and full of potholes and twin brothers, but Ezekiel thinks in the end, it’s all going to be worth it.

And maybe, if he’s really lucky, he’ll convince Jake and Cassandra to come thieving with him once in a while. 

Them and Eliot, and Parker and Hardison.

What a hell of a double date, Ezekiel thinks happily.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated, even if they're just to tell me how awful stuff is.


End file.
